May 15th, 2008
Selections from Carolyn Forche, "The Country Between Us"
from "Ourselves or Nothing"
There is a cyclone fence between
ourselves and the slaughter and behind it
we hover in a calm protected world like
netted fish, exactly like netted fish.
It is either the beginning or the end
of the world, and the choice is ourselves
or nothing.
from "Return"
Your problem is not your life as it is
in America, not that your hands, as you
tell me, are tied to do something. It is
that you were born to an island of greed
and grace where you have this sense
of yourself as apart from others. It is
not your right to feel powerless. Better
people than you were powerless.
You have not returned to your country,
but to a life you never left.
March 12th, 2008
Requiem, by Anna Akhmatova
No foreign sky protected me,
no stranger's wing shielded my face.
I stand as witness to the common lot,
survivor of that time, that place.
Motto, by Bertold Brecht
In the dark times, will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
The goal of this unit is to engage students of Creative Writing in poetry as a means of exploring Palestinian life. Students will view various photos by Mohammad Faraj, Palestinian journalism student, to give them a sense of daily life in Palestine. Students will read a variety of Palestinian poetry, both by famous poets and young unknowns. Students will then write reactionary poems and poems of witness to their own generation.
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